Daily archives for September 19th, 2014

Faithful reader Jeff Woodman wrote recently commenting on our Aug. 29 post about winners of all four show biz awards — Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Grammy. Here’s what Jeff had to say:

Wow guys, fascinating post! I’ve never seen the issue whittled down so neatly…

Reminds me of a trivia question which totally stumped me recently, though you (and no doubt your readers) will probably find it a snap.

Who is the only actor to win and Oscar for Best Actor, a Tony for Best Supporting Actor, and a Tony for Best Actor all for playing the same role?

Well Jeff, yes we do know the answer. No one has done it yet. However, it’s a bit complicated.

Yul Brynner won the Tony Award for Best Featured (Supporting) Actor in a Broadway Musical in 1952 for playing the king in The King and I. A few years later he won the Oscar for Best Actor for recreating his role on the screen.

Then in 1985 he was awarded another Tony for playing the king, but it was a special Tony because he’d portrayed the part on stage over 4500 times. Technically it was not the Best Actor Tony. In fact that year they decided not to give any awards in the Best Actor/Actress categories for Broadway Musicals.

Incidentally, Brynner never won an Emmy. So he is not a Triple Crown Winner.